BROCKTON – When Bill Conlon became CEO of the Boys & Girls Club in 2012, he saw the toll that the recession had taken on the youth organization.

Grants and donations to the inner-city club had plummeted. There had been staff turnover, and morale was low. There was less money available to make needed repairs to its Warren Avenue building, just a block from downtown.

The agency was among several nonprofits shaken by the economic crisis that took hold a few years earlier, in 2008.

“Things kind of had fallen into some disrepair that needed to be fixed,” Conlon said. “If you don’t have the money it gets deferred and it starts to look bad after a while and morale goes down. We had a turnover of staff so you didn’t have a continuity of leadership. All these things kind of happened at once and snowballed and it just became difficult.”

Conlon, a former Brockton police chief, said he’s since worked to revitalize the agency that several people have called a “haven” for city children and youth. He tapped his community contacts and garnered new grants “to help bring the club back to where it should be.”

Last week, however, Conlon had to answer questions not about the club’s revival, but about a former counselor who has been charged with raping a teenage girl on the premises.

Chris Policard, one of the club’s youth counselors, was arraigned in Brockton Superior Court Tuesday on rape and other charges. Policard, 22, a Brockton native and Roxbury resident, is accused of sexually assaulting and raping an underage teen inside the club. He pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. The charges relate to alleged incidents in February and September 2013.

Policard’s attorney Jason Benzaken said his client denies any wrongdoing and has been cooperative with police.

“He had a long history with the Boys and Girls Club. He wouldn’t do anything to harm the Boys and Girls Club. He re ally believes in that organization and its roll in the community,” Benzaken said Thursday.

For more than two decades, the downtown club has drawn celebrities, sports stars and thousands of city children and youth to the center at 233 Warren Ave. The club’s after school programs include educational tutoring, college preparatory and athletic programs.

“For a long time, it’s served the city well and youth very well,” said Ward 2 School Committee member Andrew Robinson, in whose ward the club is located.

Policard was fired from his part-time position as a youth counselor, a position he held for about three years, after he was indicted by a grand jury on May 30, Conlon said. He was initially suspended without pay after officials learned of the allegations last fall, he said. The club did not make the allegations public at the time.

Page 2 of 3 - Conlon said the agency has since met with staffers and also installed cameras in a rear stairwell where the alleged sexual assaults reportedly occurred. Officials believe this is an isolated incident involving just one victim.

Policard “had a lot of people snowed” with his demeanor and the reported assaults have shocked and hurt the club community, Conlon said.

“I was stunned and so disappointed, and hurt that somebody that had benefited so from the club would do something that was so harmful to any kids and to the club,” Conlon said.

Founded in 1988, the nonprofit Boys & Girls Club of Brockton provides after school programs to local children ages 6 to 18. The club has about 1,000 members and about 200 children attend the club daily.

Children begin trickling into the club about 2:30 p.m. after school. Several typically go to a large room near the center’s lobby, where a tutor helps them with their homework, Conlon said. They also go to a downstairs computer lab for research, or to the indoor basketball court.

The club recently hired a music teacher and a dance teacher, and added a new music recording studio, Conlon said. Children take part in dance lessons, arts and crafts in the art room, or they mix their own music.

The center remains open until about 8 p.m. during the school year, and until about 10 p.m. in the summer months.

The school year membership fee per child is $50, and includes dinner daily. The summer membership fee per child, which includes two meals a day, is $75 per week, Conlon said.

The meals are vital for the children, many of whom come from a low-income household, several officials said.

Former Brockton Mayor John T. Yunits, a co-founder of the Boys & Girls Club and honorary board member, said the club is working to track how local children “have turned around and gone to college, how we keep them out of jail.”

That information is key to share with grant administrators, he said.

“We have a lot of great people stepping up” to help the club, Yunits said.

The club has an annual budget of just under $1 million, Conlon said. About 75 percent of the budget is private donations, he said.

The agency received about $8,000 in federal funding and $24,000 from the state this year, he said.

Conlon said the club is actively looking for private donors. In September, he hired Joanne Hoops as development director. Hoops previously served as the club’s first executive director.

“She was here at the inception and built this club up from about a $30,000 operation,” Conlon said.

Meanwhile, Councilor-at-large Moises Rodrigues said he visited the club for a basketball tournament on Mother’s Day.

Page 3 of 3 - “It serves such a great need for the community,” Rodrigues said. “Because there’s so few places for young people to go, I think we need to be supportive of the club itself.”

Rodrigues and others expressed optimism that the club would continue to serve the community and work to protect city children.

“I think they will work hard to continue to be a place that serves and supports our kids and keeps them safe,” Robinson said.